Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 57

After working all week and working at the family history center I just collapsed Friday evening. Well I didn't really collapse I just decided I was tired enough to not do anything. Saturday I never even touched my computer.

Tonight I wanted to do FamilySearch Indexing and my laptop was giving me trouble. The program freezed up when I went to look at the previous page. I finally logged off and restarted everything. Then it worked beautiful. I guess it was just a hiccup.

Since I indexed on Wednesday I wasn't surprised to not see anything new on My Messages or on the website for us. I couldn't resist I wanted to index more New York 1870 U. S. Federal Census records. I was so glad they were still there.

I did several batches but the first two don't really count. There was nothing on the pages. I had hit the end of the census for the area. I got credit for doing 140 record though. My grand total to date is 8,457 records indexed.

I know this is a short report of my days adventure in indexing but it was very simple to do. It helps when you are motived by working a project you are passionate about. I sure hope they still have New York records next week. Until then have a happy Labor Day.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

FamilySearch Update: 1905 South Dakota Census and German Church Books Added

FamilySearch added the 1905 South Dakota State Census and German church books to its pilot Record Search collection online. The total number of names available for searching on the pilot site is now 478,034,410. The entire collection can be searched for free directly online at http://pilot.familysearch.org.

Collection Name	Indexed Records	Digital Images	Comments
1905 South Dakota State Census	472,575	472,575	New
Germany, Brandenburg, Church Books	0	248,852	Updated
Germany, Posen, Church Books	0	35,240	Updated

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 56

I sit here ready to work on FamilySearch Indexing. Man I am tired. So much has been going on in my life in the past two weeks. I am learning my new job at World Vital Records and loving it. But, now I am tired and sitting and working on indexing is just the thing I need.

As I index I am listening to the Democratic National Convention on TV. I have watched more TV in the past couple of weeks that I do all year long. Thank goodness for laptops, folding tables and comfy couches.

There are no new messages from Headquarters this week in My Messages. I thought by chance I would look on the actual website www.familysearchindexing.org and found two messages to share with you. I guess I need to check the website more often.

Date: August 27, 2008
Subject: Thank you!

We truly appreciate all those who have participated in indexing. Year to date, we have completed 80 million names. Great work!

Isn't that fantastic news 80 million names just this year and we have 3 more months to go!

Date: August 19, 2008
Subject: Special Update to Resolve Launching & Certificate Errors

A special update has been made to the FamilySearch indexing application to resolve the issues we were experiencing last week. To get this special update:

1. Click the Start Indexing button on this page.
2. A dialog box will appear to notify you when this update is complete. Click OK.
3. Open the indexing application again, using either the Start Indexing button or the shortcut icon on your desktop.

Some may receive an "Unable to launch application" error message the first time they open the application since this update was made. If you receive this message, close it and click Start Indexing again. If you continue to receive this error message, please follow the instructions that were posted below on August 12th.

Just encase you missed this earlier notice I have included it below.

Date: August 12, 2008
Subject: Error Launching Application

If you receive an error such as "Unable to launch the application," please click here and follow the instructions. If you still cannot open the application, contact Indexing Support at indexing@familysearch.org.

If you are using a Macintosh computer, please click here and follow these instructions.

Now I know why I was having issues getting my program to open the last couple of weeks. I did have a reader tell me they had put that as an known issue on the website but this was the first I had a chance to look at it. Now I know I need to look in two places for messages from FamilySearch.

Now that I was ready to start indexing I just couldn't believe what was listed among the projects to index - NEW YORK records. The 1870 U.S. Federal Census as a matter of fact. If I had been sitting on a chair I would of fell out of it. Thank goodness again for comfy couches. I didn't injury myself making me unable to index. This was one very happy camper indexing tonight.

It is amazing when you love what you are doing, the energy that just comes to you. I wasn't as tired working on my batches just because they were from New York. I was so motivated. In fact I indexed 5 batches with 40 names each. That made my total number of names indexed for the night 200. To date I have indexed 8,297 records.

I think I did the most batches I have ever done in an indexing session. When I was working on the Irish records there were more records to index in a batch, so I have indexed more in a day before. It was so hard to stop indexing tonight because I was so excited to be doing New York records. I find the whole experience very enlighting to me. Well I'm going to leave you on a high note tonight.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

New FamilySearch Roll-out Update

The roll-out of new FamilySearch has been progressing so nicely that I didn't realize how behind I was on updating you with the latest announcements. My source at FamilySearch was kind enough to let me know where we stand.

Sister Zamora,

Temples that went live today:

Palmyra NY

Edmonton Alberta

Guayaquil Ecuador

Nuku'alofa Tonga


Temples with official release dates

Atlanta, GA – September 9

St Paul, MN – September 9

Columbia River, WA – September 9

Louisville, KY – September 9


Thanks,

I added the Twin Falls, ID temple district on my NFS Roll-out spreadsheet. It was officially dedicated by President Monson, Sunday, August 24th. It is the 128th temple in operation. It did not go live with NFS when it opened. We now have 86 temples that are "Live" with NFS. There are 18 temples districts that have been announced, to my knowledge. This leaves us with 24 temples districts to still be announced. Utah, Idaho and Las Vegas, NV are still waiting.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

FamilySearch Update: Over 9 million New Records and New International Indexing Projects Added

FamilySearch has updated or added three new free databases this week to its online pilot program at http://pilot.familysearch.org. The new additions represent over 9 million new names. There are now over 477 million searchable names on the pilot site.

Current indexing projects include the 1920 U.S Census, 1869 Argentina Census, 1930 Mexico Census, 1945 Florida State Census, Louisiana Deaths, German Church Records, Italy Church Records, Spain Church Records, Venezuela Church Records, and Nicaragua Civil Registration Records.

A sincere thanks goes out to the great online community of FamilySearch volunteer indexers for their great work in these initiatives. Individuals willing to help with any of the current or upcoming indexing projects can begin immediately by registering online at www.FamilySearchIndexing.org. The more volunteers participating, the more records FamilySearch will be able to make freely available online—quicker.

1870 U.S. Federal Census

Thirteen new states and almost 9 million names were added to the free 1870 U.S. Census index online. Indexes are now available for Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Dakota Territory, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. Digital images can be searched for all states except Kentucky, Vermont, and Virginia.

West Virginia Births Index

A searchable name index for West Virginia Births for 1853 to 1930 has been added. This project includes 220,000 names and is 76% complete. For a list of counties indexed in the collection to-date, see the project description at http://pilot.famlysearch.org. No images currently.

West Virginia Deaths Index

The West Virginia Deaths Index 1853 to 1870 is now available online. Over 266,00 names were added, and it is 80% complete. This is an index of both statewide and county death records. A link to digital images on the West Virginia Division of Culture and History website is provided from the index.

Summary of Current Projects/Updates

Collection Name	Record Type	Comments
1870 US Census	Searchable database online	Updated – 13 new states
WV Births	Searchable database online	Updated – 14 new counties
WV Deaths	Searchable database online	Updated – 14 new counties
1920 U.S. Census	Indexing Project	New states added
1869 Argentina Census	Indexing Project	New in cue
1930 Mexico Census	Indexing Project	New states added
1945 Florida State Census	Indexing Project	New in cue
German Church Records	Indexing Project	New in cue
Italy Church Records	Indexing Project	New in cue
Louisiana Deaths	Indexing Project	New counties added
Nicaragua Civil Registration	Indexing Project	New in cue
Spain Church Records	Indexing Project	New in cue
Venezuela Church Records	Indexing Project	New in cue

Online LDSTech Talk Invitation

Renee's Note: I was excited to find the following information posted on the LDSTech Website. Please note that the Tech Talk focuses on all technology in the Church and not just how it relates to genealogy. I have been wanting to participate in an LDSTech Talk and finally I have a chance to, and so do you!

Register for Online Tech Talk Now

Written by Cassie Telford
Thursday, 21 August 2008

You are invited to participate in the inaugural streamed broadcast and interactive tech talk hosted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on August 28th at 7:00 p.m. mountain daylight time (MDT).

During the stream, you have the opportunity to interact in a webinar.
In order to participate while watching the online tech talk, you must also register.

Here are a few aspects of the tech talk you can look forward to:

Ask a Question

Have a question about Church technology you’ve been wanting to ask? Now is the time. At the first global tech talk, Joel Dehlin, Chief Information Officer for the Church, will speak in more detail about the purpose of tech talks and his vision for them. He will answer your questions on technology at the Church in real time. You may also submit your questions and comments before the event by e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or posting in the forum.

The 2008 LDS Tech Awards

The nomination period for the LDS Tech Awards is over. To find out who won, join us in this exciting first online tech talk. The winner will be announced and honored at that time. This information will also be posted on the site shortly after the event. Thank you for all of the great nominations!

Shape and Discuss the Future of Online Tech Talks

We are open to everything from branding and marketing concepts (including names and logos), to format and frequency options, to future discussion topics and ideas. Please visit the forum to provide input and feedback.

*Note: the stream will be in windows media format. You may need to install a plugin to view the event.

Keeping Track of My History

I just haven't been good about writing in my journal. Tonight I decided that I would take the time to record my feelings about working for WorldVitalRecords.com. I still can't get over how I'm going to be paid to talk to people about genealogy all day. Tomorrow I get on the phones, which is kind of scary and exciting at the same time.

So, how are you doing recording the events and feelings that make up you and who you are? Are your descendants years from now going to know what made you tick or are they just going to have a list of facts? I encourage you to record the moments of your life.

Here is my course of action in recording my history. I am using LDSJournal to write at random times, on either my laptop or desktop PC. Since LDSJournal is online I don't have to worry about which computer has my up-to-date journal on it. After several entries I will copy my entries off LDSJournal and put them into Personal Historian.

I am using Personal Historian to add all my past journal entries into so I can write my personal history some day. I haven't entered my journal entries from when I was about 12 years old in there yet. All I seemed to write about day after day was how much in love with Donny Osmond I was. At least they weren't long entries but still some phases of life you would love to not be reminded about. Haha.

Here are some links on the two programs I am using.

LDS Journal - www.ldsjournal.com
Video - A Journal for Everyone

Personal Historian - www.personalhistorian.com
Video Tutorial - http://www.personalhistorian.com/Support/PHTutorial.html

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

New FamilySearch.org Evaluators Needed

Renee's Note: This message was sent to all Family History Consultants. I have decided to include the full text so you will have a greater feel for the request. You will be interested to know that this is the first request for non-LDS members to evaluator the New FamilySearch.org website.

Request for Family History Consultants to Find Evaluators for the New FamilySearch.org Web Site

The FamilySearch evaluation team in the Family History Department invites you to help us find English-speaking individuals who can spend an hour of their time to help us evaluate the new FamilySearch.org Web site. We are seeking individuals interested in family history, including you, but especially those inexperienced in doing family history. We will be evaluating new and future design concepts for the FamilySearch.org Web site.

Since those who naturally enjoy family history work will likely be the type of person to volunteer, we ask that a special effort be made to invite individuals you know who are new to or inexperienced in doing family history. We need them to help determine if the Web site is simple and easy to use.

Please e-mail the information below to family and friends who are over age 18, including Church members and nonmembers. You can copy and paste the information into an e-mail you send.

We very much appreciate your willingness to help us. If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to the address below.

Sincerely,
The FamilySearch User Experience Evaluation Team
Family History Department
evaluation@familysearch.org

Please e-mail the following request to family and friends, including Church members and nonmembers:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is developing a new version of the FamilySearch.org Web site. This new Web site will help individuals identify ancestors and link them to families, and it will help Church members perform temple ordinances for their ancestors.

Can you volunteer an hour of time to help evaluate this new Web site? Do you know someone else who might be interested? We are looking for feedback to help make the Web site as easy and enjoyable to use as possible. We are especially interested in feedback from individuals who are new to family history.

Anyone over age 18 interested in participating in this evaluation is invited to go to the following Internet address to sign-up: http://labs.familysearch.org/temple/static/signup.htm

Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm. We greatly value your time and opinion.

Sincerely,

The FamilySearch User Experience Evaluation Team
Family History Department
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

FamilySearch Update: New Records Added

FamilySearch added over 2 million new images or indexed records this week to its pilot Record Search databases this week. Thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers who help bring these projects to the Web for public access. Patrons can search these databases for free online at FamilySearch.org or directly at http://pilot.familysearch.org.

WWII Draft Reg. Cards
Digital Images: 1,651,453
Type: Images
Comments: Updated - 1 new state (Ohio)

1930 Mexico Census
Indexed Records: 314,548
Digital Images: 104,849
Type: Index
Comments: Updated - 1 new state (Coahulia)

West Virginia Vital Records (Marriages)
Indexed Records: 306,782
Type: Index
Comments: Updated - 14 new counties

Lima, Peru Civil Registration
Digital Images: 134,664
Type: Waypt
Comments: Updated - User guidance added

1885 FL State Census
Digital Images: 8,468
Type: Waypt
Comments: New Collection

1935 FL State Census
Digital Images: 36,019
Type: Waypt
Comments: New Collection

1945 FL State Census
Digital Images: 51,686
Type: Waypt
Comments: New Collection

FindMyPast.com Extends Online Parish Records Collection

nline access to millions of nationwide parish marriage records pre-dating the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths

UK family history website findmypast.com today announced it has added 3.2 million marriage records to its Parish Records Collection at http://www.findmypast.com/parish-records-collection-search-start.action?redef=0. The new parish records, dating back to 1538, join the 15 million burial records already available to search on the site.

The Parish Records Collection brings together in one easy-to-search central place the disparate records from local parishes, which have been collated by local family history societies since 1911, coordinated by the Federation of Family History Societies.

The registers are particularly valuable sources of information for people seeking to research their family tree back further than the civil records of birth, marriage and death, which began in 1837, and the nineteenth century censuses.

Easy to search

Thanks to the cross-database search facility at findmypast.com, you will be able to search for your ancestor by surname across all the parish records on the site without needing to know where in the country they came from, helping people to delve even deeper into their ancestors' pasts.

Famous people in the parish marriage records

Among the famous names recorded in the parish marriages is writer Charles John Huffam Dickens, whose marriage to Catherine Thomson Hogarth took place in Chelsea on 2 April 1836, just one year prior to civil registration in England and Wales.

In the same year, on 5 July, engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel's marriage to Mary Elizabeth Horsley is shown in Kensington.

Both records have been contributed by the West Middlesex Family History Society.

Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager at findmypast.com said: "The parish registers are an essential resource for anyone trying to trace their ancestors back to the early sixteenth century. By publishing these records online, findmypast.com is helping to open up new avenues of research for family historians worldwide from the comfort of their own home."

Over the coming months findmypast.com will be adding parish baptism records to the website too.

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 55

I was just having to much fun Sunday watching the Olympics with my family to work on FamilySearch Indexing. Monday was my first day at my new job at WorldVitalRecords.com and it was great! I spent time researching on their site Monday evening so I never had a chance to do indexing. Tuesday isn't that bad of a day to index; I just have to keep this habit up.

When I tried to open up the indexing program it has a little hiccup. I had a notice that a special update was installed. Then it wouldn't open. I had to go out and open it again and the second time it worked. I'm not sure what the update was to the program.

I looked in My Messages and we have the following:

From: Headquarters
Subject: Semimonthly message
Date: 15 Aug 2008

Tips to make indexing easier:

Auto-fill

In table Entry view, you can auto-fill a whole column with the information from the field above. To do this:

1. Click in the field directly below the field you want to copy.
2. Move to the bottom of the column.
3. Press and hold down the Shift key, and click the last field in the column.
4. Press Ctrl+D.
   

Hide Fields

You can hide or unhide fields using the Organize Fields window. To open the Organize Fields window and hide a field:

1. On the menu bar, click View.
2. Click Organize Fields...
3. Click the name of the field.
4. Click the right arrow to move the field to the Hidden Fields list.
   

To unhide a field:

1. Click the field in the Hidden Fields list.
2. Click the left arrow.

Note: After doing this, you may want to reorganize the fields using the up and down arrows

I did receive an email from a reader a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to share with you. It's kind of long but very informative. I am so impressed with what this group of indexers are accomplishing. I don't even know who my Stake Indexing Director even is!

Renee,

I was the anonymous that suggested that everyone do the new tutorial. If you haven't done it, I recommend it highly. It is extremely well done. I think you will want to encourage others to at least have a look at it. Many people would benefit from doing it. Less arbitration would be necessary.

It seems you have been having trouble with your highlights. I have the ultimate solution for you. It works every time when you can't get to an entry. I tried to get you a screen shot of this but couldn't because as soon as I took the mouse away the highlights disappeared. I'll try to describe it. What most people don't know or realize is that there is a red rectangle or square depending on how your screen is that surrounds the yellow highlights that show up when Show Highlights and Adjust Highlights plus placing your mouse over the area of the screen. If this red line is either too low at the top or too high at the bottom, or too wide on either side, your highlights will be off and you won't be able to access some entries or parts of entries. There are red dots on each corner and another red dot in the middle of each side of the rectangle. These change to double pointed arrow when you put your mouse on them. Furthermore, you can get a double pointed arrow in each corner to make the box bigger or smaller. When describing the highlights, no one ever mentions this red rectangle or square. You can also access this by holding Control + the mouse pointer. You don't have to have Adjust Highlights turned on under View.

When you are having trouble trying to get to a name, just do a Control + Mouse pointer and look to see where the red line is. it isn't where it should be you should be able to fix it with the information I have given you.

Indexers shouldn't feel that they are doing the indexing in vain because there are so many errors in ancestry.com that we need to do it right so people will be able to find things. I believe that our search engine is going to be far superior to any that are in use today. As I understand it, you are going to be able to use wildcards if you aren't absolutely sure of a spelling. I wouldn't start with the 1920 census, I would suggest the 1870 because it is much simpler. The 1920 has a lot of superfluous stuff in it.

Do the arbitrator's part of the tutorial so you will know what is involved with being an arbitrator. Then contact your Stake Director (that's the correct term rather than Coordinator) and ask about being an arbitrator.

I am the director in my stake, Bloomington Utah Stake. I have been working in extraction for the past 31 years. I was the trainer for the pilot program for extraction conducted here in St. George starting in Apr 1977. I worked in the basement of the St. George Tabernacle for 15 years. For a period of five years I was the Stake Family History Consultant but did extraction on the side. Now I have 50 indexers and eleven Old English extractors. I don't want many more than this number of people because I want to spend a lot of time teaching them to be better extractors. I am interested mostly in quality, but with good teaching, my people are extremely motivated. I am attaching a copy of our monthly report for July. We will probably add another 3,000 to the total you will get by the end of this last day of the month. Nevertheless this will give you a good idea of the kind of workers I have. They are so hooked on extraction they actually have a hard time cleaning their houses.

We have done more in seven months in 2008 than we did all last year. Check out the totals for the indexers and the extractors. Three of the indexers have done more than 10,000 records this month. Bee Wood in the Fourth Ward is 93 years old and has done over 4,000 entries this month. Look at the arbitration figures. We aren't at fault for not doing enough arbitration!

Had to brag just a little about our wonderful group.

Jean

I'm sure that with quality instruction people feel more confident in their indexing ability. When you feel confident in what you are doing you are more apt to want to produce more. I can't even imagine doing old English extraction. Let me just say Bee Wood is awesome, I'm sure she out indexes most of us. I was amazed that this group has indexed 655,365 records in seven months. Thanks so much for inspiring us with what indexers can really do.

I did have another email from a reader, that I can't find now. They were letting me know that two New York projects are listed in the upcoming projects. WAHOO! I can't wait until I can do some New York indexing. Unfortunately we don't have them now. I decided to work on some census records even though I saw my old friend the Louisiana 1850-1954 Death Certificates still on the current list.

There are quite a few census records available to index right now. You can work on the 1870 or 1920 U.S. Federal Census. I chose the Massachusetts 1920 U.S. Federal Census. I think one of reasons I picked it right now is because it's easier to watch the Olympics while working on a census. I really get so absorbed when I work on the death certificates.

I surprised myself and did two batches while the Olympics were on. That means I indexed 100 names. It gives me a grand total of 8097 records to date. I haven't even indexed in over a year the numbers some people in St. George are doing in a month. That doesn't make me feel bad, we all have to do what we can. I sure wish I had some stats on the overall achievements of all indexers to date. I guess I need to write FamilySearch.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Tributes - Because Every Life has a Story

Renee's Note: I received the following email from Tributes.com and thought I would share it with you. They do a great job with online obituaries.

Greetings Tributes User,

As we continue to build out Tributes.com in preparation for our official launch in the fall, we are proud to present you with a completely new site design. With ease of use in mind, the new design provides more streamlined access to all features and functions along with an all new tribute format and wizard which make tribute creation simple and enjoyable. Let us know what you think. Your opinions matter. Send all of your feedback to support@tributes.com. When you’re at the site:

• Be sure to create tributes for all of the members of your family that have passed away recently or in the past as a special way to remember them. We have over 80 million death records that date back to the early 1900’s. For a limited time only, you can upgrade the death notices of all of your loved ones to tributes with unlimited text and photos which preserve the rich stories of their lives – because every life has a story…
  
  
• If you have experienced a recent loss, you might want to participate in our grieving groups and share your feelings with others that are experiencing similar emotions during this difficult time. There are special groups set up for individuals that have lost a spouse, a parent, a child, a pet or a family member or friend serving in the military. Check them out at – http://www.tributes.com/groups
  
  
• Create custom alerts to regularly receive obituaries associated with a particular town, school, family name or military unit delivered right to your email so you never miss out on the important news of someone you care about passing away and the opportunity to express your condolences to the family.
  

Best Regards,
Elaine Haney • President, Tributes.com

PS – the media is already buzzing about Tributes.com! See Tributes.com press coverage in our Media Center.

Tributes.com 31 Fifth Street • Charlestown, MA • 02129

Legacy Now Available in German and Swedish

Surprise, Arizona, August 18, 2008 -- Millennia Corporation, a leader in family history software, today announced that its software, Legacy Family Tree, is now available in two new languages: Deutsch (German) and Svenska (Swedish).

The software, used by beginners and professionals to record, plan, and share their family trees, is now the premier choice for German and Swedish researchers. Legacy is also available in Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, and English editions.

"Making genealogy software available to researchers in their native language is a big step in helping the world trace their family trees," said Dave Berdan, president of Millennia Corporation. "This is an exciting day for us to help German and Swedish researchers."

Key Features

• entire user interface and help system - all in German and Swedish
• over 100 reports and charts - all in German and Swedish
• checklists of suggested sources for German and Swedish researchers
• creates web pages and To Do Lists
• same excellent features as the regular edition including over 100 reports, calendars, expert tips/advice, statistics, web site searches, and much more...

Price and Availability

Legacy Family Tree 7.0 is now available for US $29.95:

Deutsch (German) - http://www.legacydeutsch.com/

Svenska (Swedish) - http://www.legacysvenska.com/

Other languages

Legacy is also currently available in the following languages:

• Dansk (Danish)
• English (Australia)
• English (Canada)
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (USA)
• Nederlands (Dutch)
• Norsk - Bokmål (Norwegian)
• Norsk - Nynorsk (Norwegian)

Translation is in progress for the following languages: Afrikaans, Chinese, Eesti (Estonian), Español (Spanish), Français (French), Italiano (Italian), Português (Brasil), Português (Portugal), and Suomi (Finnish).

More information about the translations is available at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/InternationalLegacyVersions.asp

About Millennia Corporation
Founded in 1984, Millennia Corporation publishes the award-winning Legacy Family Tree genealogy software program, with headquarters in Surprise, Arizona. More information can be found at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com.

New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 12

It can't be! I haven't written my "New FamilySearch Tree Sagas" article in a couple of weeks. My last article was July 24th. I know I didn't write when my Dad was out visiting and then the week after while I tried to recover from his visit. Then the Olympics happened. Gheeze it is so easy to get out of a habit. I am repenting and promising to be good and write more often.

It's Saturday and the Olympics are on but I am hiding myself away in my computer room so I can get some work done. I told myself I can only watch the prime time part of the games. Besides that's when Michael Phelps swims again. I'm not really a big sports fan. I only watch them when the Olympics are on, so over-all it's not taking that much time from my genealogy.

One thing that has been on my to-do list regarding NFS was calling the Toronto temple and checking on my grandfather's temple work. I had found his sealing to his parents as "in progress" and wanted to find out who submitted the work. I was thinking we had lost a temple card somewhere along the line.

I finally called this morning and I discovered that someone else has submitted the work in February of this year. They couldn't give me the person's name but they could tell me the last name wasn't a Harris, Glick or Zamora, which would be from my immediate family members. The sister I spoke with is going to give my new found family member a call and have them contact me. I wish I had asked if it was a Kubricky, Tambasco, or Sayer submitting the work because that would be possible cousins that I know of. I guess I will have to wait now to hear back from them.

You know it didn't bother me that we might not be able to do the work. I just want to make sure that the work is done. That's what really matters right now. Of course, if the person submitting the name is a distant cousin and would like to give me the temple card I wouldn't mind having a chance to do the work. By rights my Grandpa died in 1978 and whoever submitted it should of asked my dad if they could do the work. But since all the other ordinances are done, just not the sealing to the parents I don't feel troubled by them not asking. I might of done the same thing myself. It will be interesting to find out who the submitter is.

Before I forget there is an announcement on new FamilySearch

New FamilySearch will be down for maintenance on the following dates:
August 18th 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM MDT
August 25th 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM MDT
September 1st 12:00 AM to 1:00 AM MDT

Since I'm not up that late on a weeknight, I don't have any issues with that, but some of you around the world might need that information. I wonder if any exciting enhancements will be made during the maintenance time frame? Are they preparing for the launch of NFS along the Wasatch front? Beefing up the servers? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Well back to working on new FamilySearch. One of the things I have been thinking about is what line to start working on now. I just finished my 4 generation pedigree. I didn't know if I should work on their descendants? I was planning on printing out a 4 generation pedigree chart for each of my great-grandparents and working back on each line. Ancestors or descendants, which to work on. I think I'm going to do ancestors, so which line should I work on? Should I work on the large lines that have possible cousins that might be able to help doing the combining on them? That would be the Harris, Osberg, Miller and Spinning lines.

There is also my Weatherwax line, I know I have some distant cousins, members of the church , that are working on those lines. Which in turn would mean they would help combine those lines. I really can't wait until we are all on NFS and I can find out how I am related to these other Weatherwax's.

Then I have my smallest line that no one appears to have touched. That is my Bentley/Green lines. I think I am going to start there. Instead of printing out a pedigree chart for my great-grandfather Bentley and great-grandmother Green I decide to print out a 5 generation pedigree chart and get everyone in one capture. I don't have much going back on this line.

As I was working on the Bentley line, which goes into my Scranton line, I found all this temple work that needs to be done. I have always had an about date and place from the censuses and enough to submit temple ordinances but I never felt I had done enough research on the line. Their names got into NFS through my Ancestral File submission years ago. I have no qualms about sharing this research with others.

I sat here today wondering why am I not submitting their work? NFS tells me they are ready to submit. I feel like I have the whole family screaming in my ear - SUBMIT MY WORK. We need to be sealed as a whole family we want our temple work done. You don't need to have all the "I's" dotted the "T's" crossed. You can continue to work on this line after their temple work is done. That makes me feel much better.

I had some questions in my mind. I knew that since my temple district was not live with NFS that any temple work that I prepare, using it, needs to have the cards printed out at the FHL in Salt Lake. Now what if I wanted to have the temple do the work? Can I submit the name through NFS for the temple? Does that feature even work?

I called Family History Support at 1-866-406-1830 to ask my question. The brother I spoke with was very nice but it didn't appear that anyone had asked that question before. Yes, if I do the work I need to take the Family Ordinance Request (FOR) to Salt Lake to print the cards. It says there is limited availability to all features in NFS for my area. What does that mean? It was recommended that I use Temple Ready and submit them to the temple that way.

I really don't want to do that because it might take years for the work to get done that way. I hear that it's very fast to get the names done using NFS. What to do, what to do. I decided to hold off and just note who needs their work done. It won't be that long before my area gets NFS. Now if they appear to me in a dream or something I might change my course of action until then.

While I was on the phone with the brother from Family History Support we got on the subject of GEDCOMs and IOUS. He told me that one brother called the support line and was upset that it wouldn't let him upload 10,000 names from his GEDCOM to NFS. He wanted to just upload the names because it was taking to long to do all the combining. What was he thinking his upload would add possibly 10,000 more names to combine.

It's about as reasonable to do that as it is to take your genealogy database and making a GEDCOM copy of it and then adding it back into your database. You had 10,000 people to start with and now you have 20,000 people. Now go in and merge them all together. Why would a person cause themselves that much extra work. Well, I can tell you they don't understand the system. We are trying to clean things up and work on the people in the files as a community. It's not to have your own files and be by yourself. That's what your personal genealogy software program is for.

It makes me wish two things would happen before NFS is announced for Utah.

1. Cripple the GEDCOM feature in NFS before all the "smart" people in Utah and Idaho with huge numbers of pioneer ancestry try to upload their GEDCOMs to NFS.
2. That all the commercial genealogy programs that will sync with NFS are functioning before we go live. This should be the only way people can upload names to the system. One at a time and after they have been searched for really good in the system to make sure there are no duplicates out there.

The brother from Family History Support told me they are thinking about turning off temporarily the GEDCOM feature in NFS in the very near future. It would only make sense to me that they do that. It would be cool if they cripple the feature during the upcoming scheduled maintenance. The brother I spoke with gave me an example of one early LDS leader as having 30,000 living descendants right now. Could you imagine if all 30,000 decided to submit their GEDCOM when they went live with NFS. It would be a nightmare.

Well, I've made my list of ancestors that need to have their work done. I am just going to wait and submit them when NFS becomes available in my area. I have so many temple cards to finish working on before I go print up another batch of them. If by any chance I exhaust my current list I will submit the people on the list I made today next. So that's my saga for today.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

My New Job!

I just had to share this news with all my genealogy friends out there. Today I was officially offered and accepted a job with WorldVitalRecords, part of FamilyLink.com. I am just so excited to finally be working in a field I love. I can't wait to start training on Monday.

I didn't give my current job much notice - tomorrow is my last day. I'm so glad I was inspired to plan ahead, I started recording my job processes so someone could take over for a while now. I don't feel I need to be there to train any one. All my work is caught up and ready for someone else to take over. I just know if I gave a longer notice I wouldn't of been a very good employee - my head would be full of dreaming of my new job. It not like I was a manager or anything at my "old" job. Part of me feels bad for not giving a customary two week notice but the timing just didn't work.

What will it be like to get paid to talk to people about genealogy related things all day? This is going to be a fantastic ride. I can't wait to find out. I hope I get a chance to peak at the new Family History Library Catalog 2.0 that they are working on. Now that I'm going to be a WorldVitalRecords insider should I change my blog name? [jk]

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

NFS Roll-out Continues

I received the following email from my source at FamilySearch today.

Sister Zamora,

Palmyra and Edmonton Temple districts “go live” date was announced today. The date is August 26th.

Thanks,

Just to recap we had four temple districts "go live" with new FamilySearch today.

Merida Mexico (August 12)
Montevideo Uruguay (August 12)
Panama City Panama (August 12)
Papeete Tahiti (August 12)

Next week we will see the following:

Columbia SC (August 19)
Santo Domingo DR (August 19)
Suva Fiji (August 19)
Tampico Mexico (August 19)

It makes me wonder why only two temple districts were announced to "go live" in a couple of weeks? Could it be the calm before the storm? I haven't a clue, and I can't even guess. Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

I have updated my New FamilySearch Roll-out spreadsheet. The stats are Temple Districts: 127; Live: 78; Announced: 24. That leaves us with 25 temple districts to still be announced.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 54

I have finally gone through all my emails and blogs since I ignored them while my father was out visiting. Now I feel like I can finally get back to work and one thing that includes is FamilySearch Indexing. This past Wednesday I tried to index and it wouldn't download and open the batch for me. I am game to give it a try again today.

Speaking of game, I'm watching them, the Olympic Games that is, while I index. I can tell you this week is going to be major difficult for me to concentrate on doing genealogy when the Olympic Games are going on. Thank goodness for a laptop with wireless internet connection. I can get things done, I just move a little slower at it.

My batch from the other day was waiting for me, the Massachusetts 1920 U. S. Federal Census. I don't know how many hours it took me to index it but I finally completed it. I had decided to do two batches today to make up for last week. So it was onto my second batch for the evening.

I had a really hard time indexing that batch. The USA won the gold medal in the Men's swim relay in record time. Can you tell I'm not really into my indexing tonight. I did accomplish two things, watching the Olympics while indexing two batches. I need a gold medal for doing both at the same time! I indexed 100 individuals giving me a grand total of 7997 records to date. I think I will go back to my Olympics to tell you the truth.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

2008 UGA Fall Conference - FREE!!

The 2008 UGA Fall Conference will be held Friday and Saturday, September 12th and 13th at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is a great year to come to the UGA Fall Conference! For this year only, the conference, Solving Family Mysteries, will be at the world famous Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and it will be FREE!

For more information and the detailed class schedule, click here.

2008 UGA Conference Registration. Click here for a registration form. Also includes information about the banquet, syllabus and parking. The class descriptions and instructors names are in the announcement below.

Registration for the conference is requested to determine classroom size. Please indicate which classes you plan to take. Either 1) paste the class list into an email and send it to info@infouga.org , or 2) mail class preferences to UGA PO Box 1144 Salt Lake City, UT 84110.

Detailed Class Schedule with instructors’ names and class descriptions is on the UGA website at www.ugaonline.org in the Announcements section on the home page.

UGA Meeting and Banquet will be held Friday evening at the Plaza Hotel (next to the Family History Library) at 6:30 p.m. The banquet will be a dinner buffet with ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, beans, carrots, bread, and a dessert. Our guest speaker is Kory Meyerink, who will present “It’s True, It’s True, I Saw It in Print”. Cost for the dinner is $23.

Syllabus: Mark on the registration form if you want a syllabus and which type. A printed syllabus costs $10, and the CD syllabus costs $4.

Order a syllabus and banquet ticket by mailing a check with your registration to the address above by September 6th.

Parking: You can park at the Plaza Hotel for $8 a day or at the lot on the corner of West Temple and North Temple for $5 a day. On Saturday, free parking is available behind the Museum of Church History and Art (next to the Family History Library). The entrance is on the south side of North Temple.

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 53

I totally missed my one year anniversary of FamilySearch Indexing. My father came from New York for a visit and I couldn't pull myself away to work on indexing. I think my priorities were straight with that choice.

I spent all the time I could with my father. Which also included conducting a personal interview of him. I wanted my son to videotape it but he wasn't able to. Thankfully Radio Shack had the Olympus Digital Voice Recorder (WS-210S) on sale so I purchased it. I was so excited when I played the interview back on my computer. It was crystal clear and in stereo. It was simple to use and I am just in love with my new toy and the results I have from it.

I could of worked on FamilySearch Indexing on Sunday but I was busy sleeping and recovering from my father's visit. I major over did. I even had to call in sick on Monday. Today I am just starting to recover enough to get on the computer and do some work. Boy, do I have major, major blog and email reading to do. It's amazing how fast it all accumulates.

With that said I haven't watched the mailing list to let you know of any new developments in indexing. I do recall sending out one posting last Wednesday from FamilySearch letting us know that the indexes that volunteers create will remain free. See article "Records Created by FamilySearch Indexers to Remain Free". Some volunteers were upset with an earlier announcement from FamilySearch. They had made arrangements for Ancestry.com to host the images to the census records that volunteers had indexed. I can understand the frustration that some of these images will not be available at home for free but on the other hand I see the Church's position. It cost lots of money to host these images. Indexes are free and if you go to your local Family History Center you can see the images there free also. It's just not so convenient to go to the local FHC when your up and wanting to work in the middle of the night on genealogy. Not only is it not convenient, they aren't even open then.

I'm sure we don't have the full picture yet on what FamilySearch is arranging with partners and how it will benefit volunteer indexers. In my last Wednesday's article FamilySearch does mention some arrangements being made for "FamilySearch Members".

Where possible, FamilySearch will seek to provide free public access to digital images of original records. Due to affiliate obligations, free access to some images may be available only to FamilySearch members (volunteers and indexers who meet basic contribution requirements each quarter, patrons at Family History Centers, and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who’s contributions support FamilySearch’s operations). FamilySearch members will also enjoy convenient access in their homes or wherever they have Internet access. (FamilySearch is currently developing its ability to verify that users are FamilySearch members for future home access. This expanded access should be enabled in 2009.)

I don't know how many volunteer indexers followed that article but it's big. You can be a FamilySearch Member through indexing for FamilySearch and possibly have access at home to some limited projects, while others who are not members won't have access at home. The whole point is to get as many records available to the most people at the least cost to everyone. With FamilySearch orchestrating this venture we are in good hands. I sure hope if any volunteer indexers left over the whole Ancestry.com thing that they will read a little feature and come back. FamilySearch is working for some special privileges for those that are active participants in the FamilySearch Indexing program. We should hear more in the future regarding becoming a FamilySearch Member the article says it will be introduced sometime in 2009.

Another area of news is the FamilySearch Records Search pilot has a new search capability. They have a world map and you can click on a given region and it will show you all the record collections in that locality. I haven't played with it much, it only came out yesterday, but I think it's a great feature.

I had issues when I tried to open up my FamilySearch Indexing program on my computer. I had to open by going to FamilySearch.org and clicking on the Index Records tab. I'm not sure what's wrong with my program but at least there is a back door way to still index.

There is a new message from Headquarters for us.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Semimonthly Message
Date: 01 Aug 2008

To all Indexers:

1920 U.S. Federal Census Project

We are excited to start indexing the 1920 U.S. Federal Census! This is the fourth U.S. census to be worked on using the new indexing application. Although similar to the other U.S. Census projects, there are some differences in this project. Please read the field helps carefully and click on the example links at the bottom of each field help.

One difference in particular is found in the Township field. We ask that you index all information that was written to the right of Township or other division of county, located in the heading of the document. This includes the information written in Name of Incorporated Place and Ward of City. Also include words such as: township, precinct, or ward; however, do not include punctuation or symbols. To view an example, click here.

San Francisco Mortuary Records Project

Please notice that in the San Francisco Mortuary Records project, the Obituaries field is a required field. You must select or type either YES or NO. If there is an obituary included, it is usually located at the bottom of the image.

Double Scroll Bar in the Project-Specific Instructions Window

When viewing the project-specific instructions, please note that on the right side of the window you will see two scroll bars. You may need to use both of these scroll bars to see all of the information on each page.

The San Francisco Mortuary Records looked very promising to me but I decided to work on the Massachusetts 1920 U.S. Federal Census records. That was until I waited 30 minutes for the batch to download and open which it never did. I decided it was to late for indexing tonight so I tried to kill that batch. It wouldn't die or close so I didn't know what to do. I was thinking of leaving it running and see if it would download and open during the night and then work on it tomorrow. Instead I opened the Window Task Manager and shut down the whole program. I guess Sundays are better for indexing for me. I don't have much luck on the weekday evenings trying to get it to work. I am going to post this article and try to work the batch tomorrow.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

More Temples to Go Live with new FamilySearch

I received word on the latest temple districts to go live with new FamilySearch and those that have received their official roll-out dates.

Sister Zamora,

The following temples went live yesterday:
Nauvoo
Stockholm
The Hague
Tuxtla Mexico

And official “go live” notices have been sent to the following:
Merida Mexico (August 12)
Montevideo Uruguay (August 12)
Panama City Panama (August 12)
Papeete Tahiti (August 12)
Columbia SC (August 19)
Santo Domingo DR (August 19)
Suva Fiji (August 19)
Tampico Mexico (August 19)

Thanks,

I didn't have Panama City on my "New FamilySearch Roll-out" spreadsheet because it hasn't been dedicated yet. The dedication is scheduled for the 10th of August. This will now bring our count of temples to 127. With these updates we have 74 temples now live with NFS. I have 28 temples announced to go live, but not all of them have official go live dates. That leaves us with 25 temple districts that still need to be announced, 14 of which are in the Utah and Idaho area. You can make it 15 waiting for word, because Las Vegas was announced but then later put on hold. After these 15 receive word of going live the United States will be complete. Of course they should also be among the last to do so.

The next largest area that is waiting for word is the Asia and Middle East district, i.e. Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. I would think language support would be an issue there. Support might be a big issue for all the remain temple districts to go live. I have heard that they need double the amount of support missionaries for Utah to go live with NFS. If you have been considering serving as a family history support missionary I am sure it would be appreciated if you apply now.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Mark Your Calendars! - UGA Meeting

The Utah Valley chapter of UGA will hold their monthly meeting on Friday, August 15 at 7 pm. The location is the Utah South Area Family History Training Center at 85 North 600 East in Provo.

The Subject will be "What's New at Ancestry?" presented by Anna Fechter.

Anna Fechter is the Community Operations and Project Manager at The Generations Network. Although new to parts of this role she has been with The Generations Network for four years. In this role she has responsibility for RootsWeb, GenForum and various other Ancestry features and pages.

For questions or additional information email: beckyannroberts@msn.com